Subhash K Jha speaks about C Kkompany

Apart from a rather sad and overdone vulgar joke on the surname 'Jha', C Kkompany steers clear of turning the comedy into full-fledged farce.

This is the down market Munnabhai of the year. It tells us, it's okay to be a loser as long as your heart is in the right place. The bank balance stands a chance of being enhanced by hook or by crook provided you can get the formula for converting the zero in your life to some zeroes in your cheques.

Unlike the avalanche of films with a trio of male protagonists from Masti to Dhol to Golmaal, this one isn't about three jobless youngsters ogling up skirts and barking up the wrong trees.

The interesting mix of three generations of heroes played by Anupam, Rajpal and Tusshar brings a span of social comment into the plot. If Anupam (suitably wizened) is badgered by his rather innocuously-ungrateful son and daughter-in-law (nothing as mean and cruel as Mohan Kumar's Avtaar or Hirani's Munnabhai). Rajpal is hounded by the pathos of being not tall enough to compete with the Bachchans of the world.

In fact the film's most touching moment ensues when Rajpal masquerading as a bird in a mall is confronted by his bitter wife and son. That moment defines the whole theme of working class mores as defined by the cult of globalization and materialism and the ensuing guilt of the collective middleclass as the attitude of anything-goes qualifies the way we mould our morality.

The idea of three losers forming the 'C Company' to extort a positive morality out of subverted system of governance is not new. Farcism as a farce is an interesting premise for a plot. C Kkompany gets it right on the plot level. However, the execution gets cumbersome with an excess of gags and episodes that run from the ridiculous to the mundane.

The most interesting character is that of the comic gangster Dattu Satellite who loves Ekta Kapoor's serials. Dattu's ring tone is the signature tune of Kyunkii Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi. And because this is film produced by Ekta Kapoor's company, whole battery of Balaji actors troop in and out. The home-viewing treat becomes a casualty of over-kill. 'Plotshots' are taken at Ekta. She sportingly allows herself to be bullied by Mithun's character in her own office.

Sweet…also endearing is the sublimation of extortion and gangsterism as odes to philanthropy. One by one the episodes of this parodic homage to Ram Gopal Varma's underworld concoctions, move from the telescopic interests of the three losers to the wider good of society at large. The narration loses its way in the journey. And C Kkompany ends up being neither here nor there. Just an interesting idea gone astray. The performances tend to blend into the fabric of giggly gangsterism . The trio of 'heroes' get into their roles with the opposite of gusto. Mithun Chakraborty goes over-the-top with the much relish.

What makes us giggle are the digs at Ekta Kapoor's Saas-Bahu serials and actors. But they cannot sustain two hours of comment on the quirks and mores of the middleclass. Maybe this film had its heart at the right place. But the vision just doesn't match up.